The members of Log Cabin Republicans of California have welcomed a gay San Francisco resident as their new chairman.

Earlier this month John Musella announced his decision to resign from the chairmanship position. And last week the gay Republican political group elected Jason Clark to succeed him.

Clark this past June was elected the chairman of the San Francisco Republican County Central Committee. He is the first openly LGBT chair of the local GOP and only the second gay Republican to lead a county Republican party in the state.

Having been re-elected to his seat on the central committee in the June primary, and his term as chair expiring December 31 of this year, Clark will need to seek re-election in early 2017 at the committee’s organizational meeting in January.

GOP leader Jason Clark

In his position leading the statewide Log Cabin chapter, Clark will be overseeing the effort to make sure it retains its official recognition from the California Republican Party.

“Log Cabin California was chartered two years ago by the California Republican Party, and every two years, chartered organization must apply for a re-charter. I am leading the charge to have LCR-CA rechartered and I am excited to work with so many dedicated Republicans from throughout the state,” Clark, a project manager at San Francisco-based Consilio, LLC, told the Bay Area Reporter in an email this afternoon.

Clark, 35, is a southern California native who moved to the Bay Area in 1999 to attend UC Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in political science. He earned his law degree from the University of San Francisco’s law school and at one time had a solo practice.

Since 2011 he has been a member of the local GOP central committee, at one point serving as the local party’s volunteer general counsel. Prior to becoming the local party chair, Clark had served as the first vice-chair of the local Republican Party’s executive committee.

A longtime Log Cabin member, Clark in 2012 he ran against openly gay state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) for his legislative seat.

In recent months Clark had also been serving as president of the Log Cabin Republicans of San Francisco chapter. But due to his being named chairman of the statewide chapter, he stepped down as leader of the local chapter this week.

At its meeting last night (Wednesday, October 26) the local chapter elected Troy Bodnar, 50, a registered nurse, as its new president. In June he also won a seat on the local Republican County Central Committee.

“Troy has been involved with chapters all over the country, and we are excited to see him lead our club this year,” said Clark.